Colt Panel

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Ravenvalor

Ravenvalor

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Location
Triad region of NC
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Electrician
Has anyone ever seen a Colt electrical panel? The customer did a little research and determined that Colt entered the electrical business in the 30s and lasted for about 10 - years in the industry. She needs some replacement breakers if anyone has some for sale.
 

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Ravenvalor said:
Has anyone ever seen a Colt electrical panel? The customer did a little research and determined that Colt entered the electrical business in the 30s and lasted for about 10 - years in the industry. She needs some replacement breakers if anyone has some for sale.
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Have only seen one in a picture that was marked "colt no-ark"."Noark" must have been popular terminolgy/ marketing language b/c have seen it on vintage '50S FPE stuff- have no idea what replacement breakers your old panel may take, or where you could get some. Always have gotten a kick too out of the "extreme off" thing, they really, really wanted you to know the differences between off and tripped and that you knew how to reset it.:happyyes:
 
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user 100 said:
Always have gotten a kick too out of the "extreme off" thing, they really, really wanted you to know the differences between off and tripped and that you knew how to reset it.:happyyes:
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Makes me wonder if they had trouble resetting them back them. These seem to be having trouble resetting.
 
Ravenvalor said:
Makes me wonder if they had trouble resetting them back them. These seem to be having trouble resetting.
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The explanation I've heard is that folks were used to fuses and were mystified about these new fangled devices. They would trip a breaker, go to the panel and push the switch towards "on" and were confused about why the lights didn't come back on- they were supposed to push the switch all the way to "off", then back on to get everything running again.:D

Those breakers just might be hard to reset due to the way they were manufactured, age etc. Might want to try to put on your salesman face for this one and get them a new service- I think after seven decades or so, it's time. :)
 
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user 100 said:
Have only seen one in a picture that was marked "colt no-ark"."Noark" must have been popular terminolgy/ marketing language b/c have seen it on vintage '50S FPE stuff- have no idea what replacement breakers your old panel may take, or where you could get some. Always have gotten a kick too out of the "extreme off" thing, they really, really wanted you to know the differences between off and tripped and that you knew how to reset it.:happyyes:
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In this particular breaker you will see that tripped is actually past ON rather than partway between ON and OFf.
It does mean that just moving from TRIPPED back to ON will not actually re-arm the breaker and the handle may not stay in the ON position unless you do the full action.

Not foolproof either, but perhaps easier for a customer to understand?
 
GoldDigger said:
Not foolproof either, but perhaps easier for a customer to understand?
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Yes, it seems reasonable why they were marked that way.

Some ancient "extreme off" panels were denoted and operated as pictured above, some were not- the point was that people didn't know how to operate them- they weren't aware that the tripped brkr had to be pushed all the way( or extremely in the off position) to off then pushed all the way to "on" to get the lights back on- think of all the svc calls that were avoided in the dark ages because of those instructions.:)
 
The Colt building in Hartford is still there. It's long since been converted into other usage but it's a standing reminder of when things were still made in this country.
 
user 100 said:
They would trip a breaker, go to the panel and push the switch towards "on" and were confused about why the lights didn't come back on- they were supposed to push the switch all the way to "off", then back on to get everything running again.:D
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This has happened to me twice this year alone, told customer over the phone to turn all their breakers off and back on, when that didn't work I went and fixed problem by turning all their breakers off and back on. Not Colt panels though.

Only "Colt" panel I've ever seen was fuse holders mounted in wooden ammunition box mounted to wall
 
user 100 said:
Yes, it seems reasonable why they were marked that way.

Some ancient "extreme off" panels were denoted and operated as pictured above, some were not- the point was that people didn't know how to operate them- they weren't aware that the tripped brkr had to be pushed all the way( or extremely in the off position) to off then pushed all the way to "on" to get the lights back on- think of all the svc calls that were avoided in the dark ages because of those instructions.:)
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Might have saved some service calls, but I still occasionally have to reset a breaker because someone didn't understand how to reset it, I guess the technology is too complex for some people to use.
 
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